Digital Photography Tips – Choosing Your First Digital SLR Camera

You’ve been using point and shoot cameras and decided you’re ready for more control. You’re ready to buy a digital SLR camera. Great…Or maybe not. At this stage you know you want a digital SLR camera, the challenge is deciding just which one to buy!Entry level dSLRs are real digital SLR cameras. The quality of the images is better than anything you can get in a camera on your cell phone. This is due to the combination of superior lenses, image capture sensors and image processing systems.There are so many entry level cameras to choose from, it can feel totally bewildering. To give you a helping hand, we’ve looked at a number of different websites to put together some of the best digital SLR buys we can find in a variety of different categories. We also know that this is a highly competitive field and that many retailers have “won’t be beaten on price” policies so do feel free to check different suppliers and visit some review websites as you may get yourself a bargain deal.If you’re buying your first digital SLR and feel challenged – or even intimidated – by the complexity, don’t worry, most cameras come with a pretty sophisticated auto mode which will allow you to get started as smoothly as possible.Just to reassure you, there’s an explanation of some of the technical terms in a related article so, if there’s something you don’t understand as you’re reading through, just see if it’s in the glossary of “Digital Photography Tips – Understanding the Jargon”.An essential part of the digital SLR camera is the lens. Lenses are interchangeable, but only within the same brand make. So once you’ve chosen your brand you can only work within their range – but the choices are many. Canon and Nikon have the widest ranges of different lenses available but other brands are expanding their ranges too.If you’re buying your first dSLR, you’re more likely to buy it as part of a kit, so don’t forget to check out the lens on offer too – different retailers may package the camera body with different lenses so pick one which suits you best.The Canon EOS Rebel T1i consistently rates highly for it’s ease of use. As you become more confident you can begin to try using more features, adjusting the aperture, depth of focus or focal points – and because the results are digital, you can see the effects of your changes almost immediately!As you have more money to invest or more commitment to the photographic art form, you do get more sophisticated features on your camera. You capture more megapixels, up to 18 megapixels on the Canon T2i, but this is more than most new photographers need.In more expensive cameras, digital sensors get better and speeds get faster. The shutter speed on the Nikon D3000 is really impressive and eliminates that annoying shutter lag that can sometimes mean that all you see of your subject is a blur as they move out of shot.The ISO range of a camera often increases in more expensive cameras allowing you to take pictures in a much wider range of lighting conditions. The Pentax K-x is one example of an excellent value digital SLR that has a really impressive performance in low lighting conditions. If you have a bigger budget available, the Canon EOS Rebel T2i provides equally great low light performance and stunning 18 megapixel capacity.The LED live view screen is one really useful feature on most digital SLRs. A traditional SLR camera views the subject through the eyepiece when the camera is physically held to your eye which has its limitations. Having a large LED screen makes it much easier to see your composition of the shot from a wide variety of angles, not just with the camera held to your eye. One possible problem when working outdoors is glare on the screen making good anti-glare coating essential. The Nikon D5000 overcomes this problem by having a vari-angle color LED screen which can be adjusted to optimise your viewing.So in summary, whether any feature is worth paying for depends very much on how likely you are to use the feature in the first place. Begin by looking at the shots you want to take, the style and skills you want to learn. Don’t be tempted to buy more than you need if it means over stretching your budget.Do have fun and, whatever camera you choose, go out and use it!

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What Is Travel Insurance?

Traveling is not just about reaching a destination, it also means coming back safely. To do this not only do you need careful planning, but also a failsafe mechanism if that planning somehow comes askew. Also known as holiday insurance, travel insurance is one such mechanism using which you can make sure that any misfortune, however small or large, that may strike you while you travel remains manageable. In this article we break down holiday insurance into the types of insurance or coverages that are most required by travelers. These types of insurance cover unforeseen emergencies that may occur while travelling.Medical Emergencies
Medical insurance is one of the most useful insurance for just about anyone – but unfortunately, most general medical insurance policies do not cover injuries sustained while traveling, especially when traveling abroad. And considering that medical emergencies while travelling abroad can prove more dire, not just medically but financially too, we see that travelers medical insurance is one of the most important types of insurance you can take. Medical insurance coverage is indubitably the most important coverage among all holiday insurance coverages.Trip Cancellation Coverage
These policies cover cancellation of your trip due to factors as diverse as bad weather, jury duty, sudden illness or death, bankruptcy of the airline or cruise liner you are going to use. Many travel insurers also include terrorism insurance which comes into effect if the US state department declares the country you are about to visit a no-go nation. Trip cancellation overage can also cover trip interruption due to the aforementioned reasons. Check the travel insurance policy to see the different reasons it includes when covering this type of insurance.Other Holiday insurance Coverages
These include coverage against loss of baggage, either in transit or due to theft; loss or theft of personal possessions such as laptops, cameras and other personal affects; legal assistance while travelling; personal liability insurance as well as rental car damage insurance, and a lot of other coverages.Whenever you are traveling away from home, any cost or misfortune usually costs five or ten times more than what it would cost at home, especially when you consider that you are wasting time that you are talking out from your work-day life, and that the holiday you are taking might be one after a period of years. Given these factors, taking travel insurance is not a luxury, but a necessity. Indeed, it is said that if you cannot afford travel insurance, you cannot afford the travel. Travel safe, travel insured!

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This Decision Could Kill the Economy

The wage dispute started out as a seemingly routine matter.All day long, the workers at a recycling plant in Milpitas, California cleaned and sorted trash. In 2013, they decided to form a union for better pay.But there was just one problem…You see, they’re not technically paid by the owner of the recycling plant. Instead, they’re paid by a staffing agency (which is under contract to the owner of the recycling plant).Got all that? So who’s really the workers’ boss?Few investors realize it yet, but the answer – from a key government agency – threatens to upend the long-term business models of the stock market’s most successful retail companies…”Contract labor” is a huge and growing force in today’s economy. A record 3.2 million people, according to the American Staffing Association, work as “temps” in one capacity or another.For instance, a little over 40% of the nation’s warehouse and light industrial workers – loading crates or skating their way through cavernous buildings “picking” goods to fulfill someone’s Internet order – are considered temporary contractors.They may work in a warehouse owned and managed by Amazon, for instance, but the corporate name on their paycheck is that of a contract labor company.Flex LaborThe arrangement gives retailers plenty of flexibility to deal with the ebb and flow of seasonal demand. But it also gives them an “out” when it comes to wage disputes. If the contract staffing company at a particular warehouse suddenly finds itself dealing with a newly organized workers union, the retailer can end the staffing company’s contract and bring in a new firm.End of problem.And it was all completely legal. Under the old definition in U.S. labor law, the workers’ boss was the staffing company – not the owner of the warehouse. So the warehouse owner had no obligation to deal with a new union.That made it quite hard for unions to organize workers and demand higher pay in fast-expanding sectors of the economy.But their job just got a lot easier.Recently, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) came out with a new, expanded definition of “Who’s the boss?” According to the NLRB, both the staffing firm AND the owner of the warehouse have what’s called “joint employer” responsibility for dealing with a labor union.Huge Implications for the U.S. Economy The experts who follow these kinds of things say the NLRB’s decision will reshape corporate America’s reliance on contract labor. Some firms may decide to come to the bargaining table, bite the bullet and pay higher wages. Others could take the opposite approach and divest their warehouses or manufacturing facilities.The NLRB decision could even affect franchising chains. Until now, a parent company – faced with wage demands from workers at a franchisee’s restaurants – could take a hands-off approach and refuse to negotiate. But now, under the expanded definition of “joint employer,” the parent company may well have a mandated obligation to come to the bargaining table.You can see where this is heading, right?It’s yet another example of a powerful shift – the trend toward rising wages – just getting underway in the U.S. economy. Temporary workers are generally paid less, so their growing use in recent years greatly added to the profit margins of America’s retailers, service companies and manufacturers.And with those higher profit margins came higher and higher stock prices.How long do you think that’s going to be the case as workers reclaim more power over wages at the negotiating table?Higher wages on corporate margins are going to send ripples through Wall Street and the U.S. economy.

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